Details of Disappearance
Wesley resided with his mother and her former boyfriend in a rented home along US Highway 63 near the Bluff Creek community. He was last seen playing with puppies on the front porch at approximately 9:45am. Wesley has never been heard from again.

The state Attorney General’s Office has decided not to prosecute a Jackson woman accused of trying to sell her infant last year, the woman’s attorney said Monday.

Ruby Renee Havard, 26, faced a charge of attempted sale of a minor child after being arrested by Jackson police on Jan. 3.

In addition to a boy born last year, Havard is the mother of Wesley Dale Morgan, who was 2 years old when he disappeared from his rural East Feliciana Parish home on May 15, 2001. The boy has never been found.

Havard’s court-appointed attorney, Rhonda Covington, said she received word of the decision to dismiss the charge Friday in a letter from Assistant Attorney General Matthew B. Derbes.

Covington said she did not know what prompted the dismissal, but she added, “It was the right thing to do.”

“There never was any evidence that she tried to sell her baby,” Covington said.

Tammi Arender Herring, spokeswoman for Attorney General James “Buddy” Caldwell, said the Attorney General’s Office received new evidence from witnesses in the case that was not originally provided to police or 20th Judicial District Attorney Sam D’Aquilla.

“That information provided reasonable doubt that the payments made to Ruby Havard were unlawful in nature. The law does allow someone to pay the medical expenses, including hospital, testing, nursing, pharmaceutical, travel or other similar expenses. Based on that new information, we didn’t think this case was suitable for prosecution,” Herring said in a prepared statement.

D’Aquilla filed the formal charge against Havard, but Covington persuaded a district judge to remove D’Aquilla from the case because she would have called him as a witness had the case gone to trial.

Covington said a couple approached Havard’s mother and Havard before she gave birth last fall to ask if she would let them adopt the child, who was fathered by Havard’s boyfriend.

Havard and the couple talked to several lawyers about an adoption, including D’Aquilla, but neither party could afford to pay a lawyer to handle the adoption, Covington said.

The couple and Havard then went before a notary to sign a statement in which Havard agreed to give up the baby for a specified amount of money, police said.

Covington said the money was meant to cover legitimate expenses, but to be legal, the payments needed a judge’s approval.

After giving birth, Havard “bonded” with the baby and changed her mind about giving him up, resulting in the couple going to Jackson police.

“Had she given the baby to them, this wouldn’t have come up,” Covington said.

Covington said she and her client rejected a plea bargain in which Havard would receive a five-year prison sentence, conditioned upon her telling authorities where to find Wesley Dale Morgan.

“She doesn’t know,” Covington said, adding that law enforcement officers who say otherwise have no evidence to back up their claims.

“She was a teenager with a fifth-grade education when the child disappeared, yet she was supposed to outsmart the Sheriff’s Office and the FBI?” Covington said.

If you have any information on this case please contact CUE Center For Missing Persons using the contact form below or contact Cue Center at (910) 343-1131 24 hour tip line (910) 232-1687.

All information submitted to CUE Center For Missing Persons is confidential.